


The Cheesy Story About Birthdays

by JarvisUandDUMEtoo



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Birthday, Birthday Party, Canon Divergence - Post-Avengers (2012), Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting to Know Each Other, Illusions, M/M, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 12:17:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17560241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JarvisUandDUMEtoo/pseuds/JarvisUandDUMEtoo
Summary: Steve learns that what Tony says he wants to do for his birthday is very different from what he actually wants.





	1. Chapter 1

Steve was looking at his phone when his leg bumped into something on the way to the kitchen. It was a rolling chair, and it gave a sad squeak as he accidentally kicked it. He looked up and saw that the entire room was filled with chairs, as well as desks, filing cabinets and a printer with a rather large dent in the side of it. This was new. 

“Jarvis? Is this some new future holiday? Like a…. chair day?” he asked with trepidation. Steve didn't know what was going on but it looked more like trouble than fun. Not that that he didn’t appreciate chairs, he just didn’t always understand why some things needed a holiday. Why was there a day celebrating shopping? Why was there a day celebrating a mathematical constant for finding a circle? Why was there a day devoted to talking like a pirate? Steve didn’t get it. 

The voice from the ceiling sounded resigned. “I'm afraid there is no holiday. Sir up to his usual antics.” 

No sooner had Jarvis finished his sentence than the man himself strode out of the elevator, fully armored up, balancing two desks carefully in his arms. Behind him, DUM-E beeped and nudged a chair out to join the others filling the Avenger’s living room. Tony dumped the two desks next the others, and straightened up, casually brushing off his hands. 

“Hey Cap! How are ya?” he asked cheerfully. 

“I'm fine, thank you for asking. How are you?” Steve responded. He always tried to be polite, no matter if Tony was wearing on his nerves. 

“I'm good! Great. Excellent as always! Yes. Yup.” He rocked back and forth on his heels, which looked rather odd considering that he was wearing the travel sized equivalent of a tank. Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. Lord give him patience. “So Stark….” 

“Yes?” 

“Is there a reason that the living room is filled with chairs? And desks, and one very beat up printer?” 

“DUM-E got a little over enthusiastic, don't worry, I'll fix it. Or maybe I’ll rebuild it better!” 

“The state of the printer was really not my point.” he said with a sigh. 

Before he could continue Clint walked into the room and promptly tripped over a desk and landed in one of the chairs. “What the… why are there chairs? Did you invent a chair gun? Like a ray gun that turns things into chairs??? That would be pretty cool. Wait, is this a super villain thing? Are you turning into a supervillain? Can I shoot you?” Tony clapped his hands together. “In reverse order, no, no, no, no, no, and because it's my birthday! And as Tony Stark, I'm throwing the party of the century! Music, food, as much alcohol as you can drink!” 

Clint slumped down in his chair dejectedly, muttering about chair guns. Tony continued, ignoring him. “So I needed somewhere to put the party. I technically own this whole building, but the floor below us has offices for Stark Industries, so I gave everyone the rest of the week off, and moved all the furniture up here so there would be space.” There was an outraged beep and DUM-E nudged his arm. Tony gave him a pat. “Sorry, we moved the furniture.” 

Steve crossed his arms. “So we're going to have to deal with furniture everywhere for the rest of the week, and have to deal with all of the noise and security risks of a party? Great.” he sighed. 

Tony shook his head frantically. “No, no! Well.… actually yes on the furniture. And maybe the security. So actually yes to both. But the party will be fun! You guys will love it!” he insisted. 

“There is no way I'm going!” Steve was horrified by the very suggestion. 

Clint shrugged. “Yeah, no. Not really my thing. And I doubt you'll convince Nat or Bruce either. Maybe Thor if he's back from Arizona, though he's supposed to be there at least another week. It's probably just going to be you and two hundred of your closest celebrity friends.” 

For a second something seemed to flash across Tony's face, before it was hidden behind a cocksure grin. “I'll take a dozen supermodels over you any day, birdbrain! You guys want to mope around while the party of the century happens the floor below, fine by me! DUM-E! Let's go, we've got chairs to move!” He strutted into the elevator with his robot following loyally, and with a whoosh they were gone again. 

Clint leaned back in his chair. “He's a weird guy, isn't he?” 

Steve nodded his head in frustrated agreement. “More like annoying. He doesn't think, he doesn't ask, he just does these things, and it drives me crazy.” He ran his hands through his hair and started pacing. 

Clint spun around idly in the chair. “What are you going to do? It's technically his house, and it is his birthday.” 

“Yeah, I guess.” Steve sighed. “What are you going to get him?” 

Clint snorted and spun to a stop. “Get him? He's richer than God, anything he wants he probably already owns a dozen of.” 

Steve frowned, seeing his friend’s logic. “Still though… Bruce's birthday is coming up, and I want to get him something, and for you and Nat when it's your birthday. Celebrating birthdays is an important part of team bonding, and we can't do everyone else and skip Tony, as annoying as he may be right now.” Plus he didn't want to think what trouble Tony would get up to if he thought he was being ignored. The very thought made Steve shiver. Clint didn't seem to care. 

“This is probably why you're the team leader. You do you, but I'm going to start team bonding next birthday.” He got up and wandered out of the room. Steve sat on a desk and starting trying to think of a gift idea. 

. 

### 

. 

The next day Steve knocked on the door of Tony’s lab. He could hear the music shut off, and the door opened. “You need something Cappuccino? I'm pretty busy here.” Steve shuffled his feet awkwardly, and shoved a box wrapped in newspapers into Tony's hands. “I got you a gift.” 

Tony turned it over curiously. “You got me a gift? Why?” 

“It's your birthday this week right? Well, happy birthday. There's your gift, and if you want we could go get lunch or something.” 

Steve didn't expect Tony to say yes, considering that he had started the conversation off with how busy he was. Tony turned the box over a few times in his hands, and looked up. “Actually, Yeah! Give me a half hour to finish up and I'll meet you in the living room?” 

Steve shot back before thinking. “The one you filled with chairs? Where exactly in that room should I wait?” 

Tony blinked at him. “Right, actually this might take a while, you better just go on without me.” 

Well, shit. Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “No sorry, that came out wrong.” He mentally kicked himself, he was trying to be nice to Tony, not piss him off. The first rule he had learned after spending a week on the Avengers was that pissing off Tony was a very bad idea. Pranks took on a whole new level when the entire building could be turned against you through Jarvis. 

Tony squinted at him. “Yeah. Captain America would never be mean, heaven forbid. Look, if this is some weird team captain thing, you really don't have to.” 

Steve swallowed. Leave it to Tony to figure it all out in about thirty seconds. If he backed out now, he would have to admit he was right, and the other thing he had learned the first week was to never admit Tony was right. Ever. Forget the other rule, this was number one. It went above touching Natasha's throwing knives or Thor's cape. So he slapped on a smile, and told Tony to meet him at the elevator in thirty. 

. 

. 

Half an hour later they met up at the elevator. Tony was on time for once, and Steve allowed himself to hope that this wouldn't be too bad. Tony would probably get a phone call or an idea of something to build and wander off after ten minutes anyway. He could make it ten minutes alone with his team mate without fighting. He hadn't managed it yet, but today was a new day. They stepped out of the tower and started walking. Tony crossed and uncrossed his arms, before stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Where are we going?” 

“There's a nice hamburger spot near here.” 

“Ok. That's nice.” 

“Do you like hamburgers?” 

“Yeah.” There was a long pause. “Do you like hamburgers?” 

“Um. Yes.” There was another awkwardly long silence. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah, of course. Why?” 

“You’re, um. Quiet.” Steve said hesitantly. 

“I’m not running my mouth like usual until I piss you off?” 

“I didn’t say that, quit putting words into my mouth.” 

“See, that’s why I wasn’t talking, I wanted to try to make it through lunch without fighting.” 

“It’s not like I want to fight you, you just make everything into a challenge.” 

“It takes two to tango, Capsicle.” 

“I don’t know what that means, but since it’s you I can just assume it was something mean.” 

“So you assume everything I say is mean? Great. No wonder we have communication issues, every time I mention a movie or use an expression you think it’s an insult. Which is a real problem since I’m 90% pop culture references.” 

Steve took a deep breath. They had technically made it ten minutes this time, which was progress. But if he didn’t stop things here, he knew from experience that their conversation would continue to go further off the rails. 

“Look. Let’s start over. You stop mentioning things I won’t understand, and I’ll stop assuming you’re making fun of me when you do make a reference. We both don’t want to fight, so let’s just talk about something else.” 

Tony didn’t look at him. “Whatever.” 

That was probably the best he was going to get, so Steve moved on. “So. What’s your favorite color?” 

“My favorite… what?” 

“Favorite color.” 

“Why?” 

“It’s the most harmless subject I could think of. And it was in the SHIELD briefing packet on how to make new friends in the twenty first century.” 

“Wow. So if we make it through this, can we talking about sports next? Or that’s probably a level three question, we’d have to make it through favorite animal first.” 

“Level three? More like level five. I’d have to know a fella’s favorite color, number, animal and season before I’d dare ask about his sports teams.” 

“Got that right Rogers, it’s private information. I may trust you with my life fighting against aliens, but if I like Barcelona? Top secret. We’re in public so I can’t even mention a certain baseball team based near here.” 

“Scandalous! Let’s just start with favorite color, we’re in public after all.” Steve insisted. 

“Alright, I like red, obviously enough.” 

“I like blue.” 

“You know what, I think I’m going to write a thank you note to SHIELD, these hard hitting questions have really helped me understand you on a deeper level, and really connect with you as a person.” Tony said, his face dead serious and his eyes dancing with mirth. 

They both laughed. 

“Wow Tony, that was beautiful, what training seminar did you steal that from?” 

“Does it matter? Seriously, help me with this.” Tony pulled out his phone and started composing an email. “Dear SHIELD,” he started, but was laughing too hard to continue, so Steve grabbed the phone and started typing. 

“Dear SHIELD, thank you for the list of high quality friendship questions. Asking Tony about his favorite color really revolutionized our relationship. After we discussed the seasons I just knew we were going to be best friends for life!!!!” 

“No! You can’t put that you liar! You didn’t even ask me that one yet!” 

“Fine, fine. Tony, what is your most favorite season?” he asked, dragging out the ‘o’ in favorite like an over excited grade schooler. 

“Spring!” Tony yelled with glee. “Now slap about ten extra exclamation points on that bad boy, SHIELD needs to know you’re serious. Next question!” 

Steve dutifully added a full two lines of exclamation points to his last sentence and scrunched his nose as he tried to remember the next question. “Favorite animal I think it was?” 

“Does it have to be a real one? I’m gonna say a phoenix. Don’t say yours, I’m going to guess. Ummm. Eagle? No, that’s too obvious. Dog?” 

“You’re never going to guess.” 

“Mountain lion?” 

“What the fuck?” 

They both stared at each other wide eyed. Tony started babbling. “Oh man I made you swear, that’s not good, it only took me ten minutes to ruin Captain America, Fury’s going to kill me.” 

“No, no, you’re fine, that was just really bizarre. You’re right, it’s a mountain lion. The commandos and I were trying to get into a Nazi base but didn’t have any way past the guard, and out of nowhere a mountain lion jumped out of tree and ripped the guy to shreds, got him out of the way and distracted the rest of the guards long enough for us to get inside. Afterwards we made the lion an unofficial Commando. It’s really weird that you guessed that.” 

“I cheated a little. You know there’s a museum exhibit on the commandos, right? When I was younger I asked Peggy who Sergeant Whiskers was.” 

“They really included the lion in with the list of Commandos?” 

“Steve, they gave him a whole plaque and a paragraph on his heroic deeds. No one will ever forget the brave actions of Sergeant Whiskers. It’s pretty crazy.” 

“You think that’s the craziest thing to happen during the war? Lemme tell ya…” 

And before they knew it, it had been over an hour of them just enjoying lunch, and not fighting. They got up and left the restaurant, and walked back to the tower. 

Before, Steve had been keeping his eyes forward and Tony his arms crossed, now they laughed with each other and walked with shoulders relaxed. When they got back to the tower, Tony insisted on opening his gift. Steve had given him some nice coffee and a sketch of DUM-E. It was more of a warm up that turned out nice than an actual finished illustration, and Steve really wished he had put more time into it as Tony hugged the paper to his chest, declared that it was true art, and promised to have it framed and hanging up in his workshop by the next day. Steve had gone into this whole thing really dreading it, and it had ended up being a decent afternoon. Tony was fun to be around when they weren’t fighting. Score one for team bonding, he thought, and went back to his room with a smile. 

. 

### 

. 

The next day the chairs were gone from the living room. Steve checked around, and they weren’t in the kitchen or gym either. On a hunch he rode the elevator down, and found that they had been returned to their rightful spots on the office levels of the tower. Steve got back in the elevator and went to Tony’s lab. He knocked on the door, and it slid open, so Steve stepped inside. 

“Hey Tony, you moved the chairs back.” 

Tony put down a soldering iron and turned around. “Hey Steve! Yeah, I did, I know you guys weren't thrilled with them being up there.” 

Steve frowned. “Where are you going to have your party then? There isn’t room downstairs anymore.” He hoped Tony didn't switch it to their living room, that would be awful. 

Tony looked down and fiddled with a metal wire. “I cancelled the party, actually.” 

“You cancelled it? Why? I mean, the chairs in the living room weren’t great, but we could have lived with it for a few days, you didn’t need to cancel the whole thing.” 

“No, you were right, it was inconvenient, and I probably should have asked or at least mentioned it to you guys. I tend to get really excited about a project, and I sort of forget everything else. And I didn’t need to have a party anymore, since we celebrated.” 

“You cancelled a 500 person party…...because I took you out for a burger?” Steve asked, disoriented. Tony gave him a small grin. 

“And drew me the greatest piece of art since DaVinci, though I might be a little biased toward both the artist and subject.” He pointed to the wall behind him where the drawing was hung in a surprisingly tasteful frame. “Can’t forget the picture. You know how long it’s been since someone got me a gift without wanting something in return?” 

“I don’t understand. You really cancelled the whole party?” 

“Sure, why not? I just wanted to celebrate my birthday. Rhodey is on some secret mission overseas. He sent me a nice email, but it’s not the same. A couple years back I forgot Pepper’s birthday, now it’s kind of an inside joke between us to celebrate each other’s birthdays on the wrong day, which is great, it’s fun, but it does mean she doesn’t do anything on my actual birthday. So I sat in my lab alone all day, and at the end I said ‘to Hell with it’, and decided to throw a huge party, because I’m rich and bored and making it through another year of apocalypses and aliens damn well deserves to be celebrated. And we did. Celebrate, that is, yesterday. With burgers. It was great.” Tony looked at him expectantly as Steve stared at him blankly. 

“Is there anything else you needed? No? Because I really do need have stuff to finish that I put off yesterday.” 

“Um. No. See you around, Tony.” 

Tony waved absentmindedly as he turned back to his work, and Steve quickly walked out of the lab. He went back to his room and sat on his bed, upset. He felt like a real heel. All Tony had wanted was for someone to spend some time with him on his birthday, and Steve had only done it because he felt like he had too, and on the wrong day too. He didn’t when Tony’s actual birthday was, despite having access to his file. He had never bothered to look. Did the other Avengers know? Had they even said happy birthday to the guy who was building their gear and letting them live in his house for free? Probably not. 

In retrospect, Tony and the rest of the team didn’t interact much. He mostly stayed in his basement labs while everyone else was upstairs playing cards or watching movies. The only other Avenger he interacted with on a daily basis was Bruce, and from what Steve could tell, it was more scientific consulting than friends hanging out. Though Tony could be grating at times, he deserved better. So Steve resolved to himself that from now on, he would include Tony in the team.


	2. Chapter 2

Steve strode quickly through the halls of the tower to the basement lab, Clint and Natasha close on his heels. They had been on a mission for SHIELD in Colorado when they had gotten a call that Tony was down. They had waited a tortuous half hour before their replacements had shown up, then they had boarded the quinjet and flown back to New York immediately. 

Since Tony’s birthday, Steve had been putting in an effort to get to the know the man. Weekly lunches had turned into watching movies too, which had started to include video game tournaments, and before Steve knew it, he had a desk to do paperwork in Tony’s lab and a couch to sketch on, and in Steve’s room there was one of Tony’s tablets next to his sketchbooks, his bookshelf was filled with Tony’s recommendations, and one of Tony’s coats hanging up in his closet. He wasn’t sure why the coat was there, but it made him feel warm whenever he saw it, so he didn’t question it. 

As Tony had been spending more time with Steve, he had been spending more time with the team by proxy. They had grown close, and Natasha and Clint hadn’t hesitated to abandon the mission to check on their team mate. 

When they made it to the lab, they found Bruce and Dr. Strange hunched over Tony’s still form. 

“What’s the situation?” Steve asked, circling the table Tony was laid out on to examine his face. Despite being a little pale, he appeared unharmed, like he had decided going upstairs was too much work, and had gone to sleep on the table. 

“There was an attack downtown by a magic user or possible unregistered mutant. She touched Tony, and he went down. He’s been unresponsive ever since. She put the Hulk to sleep too, but instead of knocking him out, it brought me back. She was tranked by a SHIELD agent, and I dragged Tony home. When he didn’t wake up and I couldn’t find anything on my scans, I called Dr. Strange and you guys.” 

“I examined him before you got here and I determined that it is magic, of an ancient and powerful kind. She has sent him to a realm of dreams, where he is living in a perfect world, from which he will never want to return.” 

Steve wondered vaguely at what Tony’s perfect world might look like as he asked the most important question. “How do we get him back?” 

Strange steepled his hands. “I can send one of you in, to try to convince him to return to the real world. You cannot drag him, he must return of his own volition. I must warn you that I have seen this spell cast twice before, and both times the afflicted never awoke, and in the second case the second person sent in was lost as well. If you spend too long in the dream world, it starts become more real and the spell adapts to include you as well. If people from your past start to show up, you must leave, whether you have convinced your friend to return or not. It is not a challenge for the faint of heart.” 

“I’ll do it,” Steve responded without hesitation. Strange sighed and shook his head, but agreed to perform the spell to send Steve in. Steve laid down on the bench next to the table, Tony already filling that. Strange waved his hands and the faces of Steve’s team mates disappeared in a swirl of orange. 

### 

Steve opened his eyes and sat up. He was outside a white mansion in what looked like the older part of New York. He got up, brushed off his pants and looked around. The streets were empty so he decided to knock on the door of the mansion. It was opened by a tall man who greeted him in an eerily familiar voice. 

“Jarvis?” Steve asked dumbly. Tony had a couple small photos pinned to a tactboard in the back of his lab alongside semantics for phones and planes. There was a picture cut from a magazine of a young Tony crouched near DUM-E, a picture of the two of them at a press event also cut from a magazine, and finally a tattered polaroid of this very man along with two women standing next to Tony at graduation. 

“Yes Sir?” the man who must have been the original Jarvis asked. Steve hadn’t realised that he had been a real person, but he shook off his shock and kept focused on his goal and his dwindling time. “Do you know where Tony is?” 

Jarvis nodded and lead him into the house and down the hall to a room spilling over with noise and light. Steve entered and found it was a kitchen, and he paused in the doorway to take in the scene. A brown haired woman stood at the stove stirring a pot of pasta, and the smell of pie whafted from the oven. Jarvis gave her a kiss and joined her at the stove. Through the doorway Steve could see the dining room where all of the Avengers sat along with Pepper, Happy and Rhodey. Two clawed robots tried to set the table. At the kitchen counter a blonde woman chopped peppers for a salad while Tony stood beside her, laughing and peeling a carrot with easy strokes. He looked up and spotted Steve, his face breaking into a wide smile. 

“Steve! There you are! I thought you had wandered off. Get in here and help us with the salad.” 

Steve approached him hesitantly and the blonde woman handed him a tomato and a knife with a smile. “I’m Maria, Tony’s mother. I’m so glad you could join us, Tony’s always talking about you. Isn't that right, Anna?” 

The woman at the stove nodded. “Steve this, Steve that, too much talk and not enough peeling.” She gave him a mock angry look and Tony dulfully went back to his carrots. Steve put the tomatoes and knife back on the counter. “Nice to meet you both. Tony, could I talk with you for a minute in the hall?” 

Tony nodded and abandoned his carrots. They walked back into the hall and stopped a few feet out of the kitchen, facing each other. Tony gave him a concerned look. “Is everything alright? Did you run into trouble getting here?” 

Steve struggled with what to say. For being the man with the plan, he hadn’t put any thought into this beyond ‘Tony is in trouble, I can help, I have to go right now.’ 

What in the world could he say to convince Tony to leave his perfect world and return to real one, where his family was all dead and his heart was filled with metal? Should he even convince Tony to return? He was happy here, Bruce could probably hook his body up to some sort of machine and keep Tony here, happy, safe, and content for the rest of his life. The life of a superhero wasn’t an easy one. Steve had seen the bruises darkening against Tony’s skin where the suit dented after every mission. He watched Tony stretch to reach the top shelf of a cabinet and hunch over with a wince, clutching his chest where the metal ring of a missile casing rubbed against rough sawn ribs and scarred skin. He had caught Tony staring out the window at 2 am, dark circles under his eyes and a cup of scotch in his hand. 

Here he was so happy. A happy lie. And for all of Tony’s flaws,he was never afraid to face the truth. 

“Do you remember that movie you made me watch? The Matrix?” 

“Sure? Why did we need to go into the hall to talk about movies?” 

They were interrupted by the doorbell. Tony waved at Jarvis in the kitchen, and went to open it, Steve following. Tony opened the door to reveal Peggy standing there, a little older but just as beautiful as Steve remembered her. Tony greeted her warmly, inviting her inside and taking her coat. Steve managed to stutter out a welcome, as he mentally reeled. Strange had warned him people from his past would start to show up, and it made since that she was the first to appear, since Tony had a connection to her as well. 

Hearing that was one thing, seeing Peggy again, hale and hearty after a year of seeing her in the nursing home, was staggering. 

“It’s been too long Steve, want to go out to the dining room and catch up?” 

There was nothing that Steve wanted more. Even if she wasn’t real, she sure looked it, and the chance to talk to her one more time, to say goodbye, when she knew who he was and where they were…. 

Surely one minute couldn’t hurt? 

There was a second knock at the door. “That must be Barnes,” Peggy guessed. “I thought I saw his car as I was turning in here.” 

Steve’s eyes locked on the door. Bucky? Bucky was here? 

Whoever was at the door knocked again and Peggy turned the latch and pulled it open. Steve spun around and dragged Tony down the hall before he could see who it was. If it really was Bucky, there was no way Steve would be able to leave after seeing him. So he dragged Tony down the hall and into the first open door, which ended up being a library. 

He shoved Tony down into an overstuffed chair and looked him in the eyes. They didn’t have time for beating around the bush. 

“This isn’t real. You were hit by a spell and now you’re trapped in a dream. You need to wake up.” 

Tony blinked at him. “What? Is this a joke? Did Clint put you up to this?” 

“It’s not a joke. You’re a superhero, you fight crime in a flying metal suit, you were attacked by a magic user while fighting downtown. You live in a tower with the rest of our friends. Any of this ringing a bell?” 

“Are you even hearing yourself? That’s crazy. Beyond crazy. How much did you have to drink before you came over here?” 

Footsteps approached from the hallway. “Steve, you in here?” Bucky asked. 

Steve screwed his eyes tightly shut. “Forget the superheroes. Do you trust me?” 

“Of course,” Tony responded without hesitation. 

“Will you follow me?” 

“Anywhere.” 

“If you come, you will lose this home. You will lose your health, your peace of mind. You will lose people you love. That isn’t a guess, it’s a fact. Will you still follow me?” 

There was a pause and Steve didn’t dare open his eyes as he heard the footsteps in the hall continue to search, getting closer. 

Finally Tony asked, “Will you be there?” 

“Every step of the way.” Steve promised. 

He heard Tony stand up and felt a hand on his arm. “Then I trust you. Lead on, Captain.” 

Steve breathed a sigh of relief. It was time to go home. Because though it was imperfect, that’s exactly what it was. Home. 

Though he had tried to explain the dream to Tony using the Matrix, Steve was a little more old fashioned. He made sure he had a firm hold on his friend, and clicked the heels of his red boots together three times. The world spun around them and Steve blacked out. 

### 

Steve sat upright with a gasp. He whipped his head around and saw Tony doing the same, a hand pressed on his chest over the reactor. Bruce was immediately all over him, taking his blood pressure and asking what Tony remembered. Steve laid back down on the bench and rubbed his hands over his face. That had been too close for comfort. And seeing Peggy like that, even if she wasn’t real, felt like a blow to his chest. Steve felt a hand on his shoulder. 

“Thank you.” Tony said. 

Difficult as that had been, he’d do it a hundred times more if it meant getting Tony back. 

Steve sat back up. “No more pissing off witches.” 

Tony laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. “Sounds good to me. Now who wants pizza?”


	3. Chapter 3

On May 29th Tony hopped out of the elevator on the common floor after a hard day of work, and all his friends yelled “Surprise!” 

Rhodey, Happy and Pepper were holding a sign wishing him a ‘Happy Birthday’, while Clint and Natasha brought out plates of pasta and trays of cupcakes. Thor and Jane were stacking presents on the kitchen table. Steve grabbed him from behind and started pressing kiss to his face. 

After Tony’s Sleeping Beauty routine where he said he’d walk through Hell as long as Steve was there, he had reevaluated their relationship and realized they had passed being purely platonic friends weeks ago when they started referring to their weekly dinners as date night and sharing closet space. Now they were officially together and couldn’t be happier. 

Tony accepted his kisses with good grace and stole a cupcake from Clint’s tray. 

“Aw, you guys shouldn’t have.” He said, not so secretly thrilled. 

“We didn’t want another repeat of the great chair fiasco.” Clint said dryly, his smile taking away any sting the words might have carried. 

“It would have been the party of the century, if Steve here hadn’t given me the puppy dog eyes.” 

“I think at that point I was still using the patriotic glare of disapproval. I didn’t realize the effectiveness of puppy eyes until September, at the earliest. It was all over for you after that.” 

“You’re a master tactician, I didn't stand a chance. Now let’s eat!” 

They all settled at the table and passed around plates of pasta and bowls of bread. They all told stories and laughed happily late into the night. Steve kept his arm over the back of Tony’s chair and they spent most the night shooting each other sappy looks. After dinner they moved to the living room to open gifts. 

Natasha got him interesting mechanical wind up toys she had seen on a mission. Bruce got him a fancy type of coffee, and Thor and Jane got him a device they had created to detect magic. The rest of them got him gag gifts, Clint giving him wrinkle cream for being such an old man. Pepper got him a pen filled with invisible ink, so if he forget to sign paperwork again he could claim he did sign it, invisibly. Rhodey got him a Iron Patriot t-shirt, which Tony balled up and threw at his friend’s head. 

Tony opened Steve’s gift last. It was a large thin package, and as he tore the paper away a painting was revealed. Tony stood in the center, with his family around him. To his left his mom stood next to Jarvis, who had his arm around Anna. Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy all stood together smiling. DUM-E and U shared a spot in the corner, arms raised. On the other side, the Avengers stood tall and proud. Natasha and Clint leaned on each other comfortably. Bruce stood in front of the Hulk. Thor was accompanied by Jane, the only one in his uniform instead of civilian clothes. Steve had given himself the place of honor next to Tony, and their painted figures were holding hands. 

“You like it?” he asked. 

Tony nodded. Everyone polity pretended not to notice how watery his eyes were. “I guess it’ll do.” 

Steve gave him a kiss. “Happy birthday, Sweetheart.” 

“A very happy birthday,” Tony agreed with a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> It was my birthday this week and I wanted to write something happy.


End file.
